


Homeward Bound

by Nerdy_Duck



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brotherhood, Della moon mama, Gen, Huey is Jet, Moon Child - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26619265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdy_Duck/pseuds/Nerdy_Duck
Summary: Della Duck is trapped on the moon but isn't alone. She had brought one of her eggs with her and now must learn what it means to be a mother while trying to find a way to get them home. Huey or Jet here, however, is nervous about the life that awaits on the planet in the distance and of what lays in the shadows of the moon
Relationships: Della Duck & Huey Duck, Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck, Donald Duck & Huey Duck, Huey Duck & Scrooge McDuck, Huey Duck/Webby Vanderquack
Comments: 18
Kudos: 38





	1. Welcome to the Moon

How would one describe Della Duck? Adventurous, spunky, spirited, headstrong, and stubborn. Her Uncle Scrooge would say she’s one of the best adventurers he knows, THE Della Duck! Her twin brother Donald though often argues she’s too reckless and devil-may-cry with her life. This thinking only increased when three eggs came into their lives but the three did flare up something in Della. A want, a selfish want to have just one more story to give to her triplets. To give them a reason to look up at her with stars in their eyes. Sadly, this decision was a mistake that she would not have to go through alone…

. . .

Della sighed as she put on her helmet and felt nervous. It was a strange feeling as she never really felt like this even on the most dangerous of adventures, maybe it was because she always had Donald and Scrooge by her side, maybe it was the guilt at doing what she was about to do, or maybe it was because of the risk of taking this little guy with her. An egg was laying beside her, one of three, and something that she had conflicted feelings when she learned about them as she was afraid she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Those feelings lessened however as her brother, cousins, and uncle promised to help her and fear turned to excitement and contentment.

“You’re lucky you know that? You’re gonna hatch in a place of love and care, I promise.” She whispered as she held the egg, watching it shake a bit, the duckling inside reacting to the voice. She smiled and hugged the egg, sighing, and making sure she had everything she could need for their trip. She kept glancing at the phone and hoping that it would ring. She left one egg each with Scrooge and Donald, Who knew where Gladstone could be? She had put her hope in Fentry but he too hadn’t answered so she made a choice.

“Okay, little guy, looks like you’ll have a story to tell your brothers, the time you went into space with your mama.” She said with a sad smile as she snuck onto the ship holding her egg. The ship was meant to be a gift but Uncle Scrooge was never that good at hiding things, at least from family. She smiled at the small incubation chamber that her uncle had built-in. It was more for baby hatchlings than eggs, probably for the boys when they were out and Della would be sure to have wanted to take them on their first adventure right away. 

She put the egg in the chamber and stared longingly at it before heading to the controls. There it was again, those stinging feelings. Fear, guilt, regret, and disgust at herself, at her need for this. She frowned and grabbed the controls, shaking the thoughts out. This duck never backed down before and won’t start now! She started the controls and turned on the radio but there was only static after all Scrooge was the only one who knew about the rocket and she made sure he was distracted at the bin with her egg.

She checked all her gauges and made sure all her controls were perfect before starting the countdown and taking one glance back at her egg. She hit zero and hesitated for only a moment before pushing the button and they were flying. It was smooth, just like so many plane rides she had flown before. Maybe there was nothing to fear. She smiled and laughed to herself.

“You should be careful Della, you’re inner Donald is showing.” Just as she left the atmosphere though, alarms sounded and the ship began to shake and sputter. Della cursed as she fought with the controls and tried to regain control. A cosmic storm?! Now?! Her inner Donald really was showing. She glanced back at her egg to check on it but knew she had to focus. The storm started to shoot lightning wildly so Della maxed their speed, hoping to escape the storm before one of those bolts struck them. 

This had been a mistake, taking the ship, bringing her egg, and not telling Scrooge. His voice would have been comforting for the mother. “Dang it… dang it dangit DANGIT!! She shouted as she was dodging more and more bolts but then she saw it. One from the corner of her eye, one that she didn’t see in time. The ship jolted as it was struck and Della felt a new level of fear for her egg. She pulled out her JWG and shoved it against the controls to keep them straight before leaving the controls and running to the chamber, grabbing her egg before a crash could be heard and everything went black…

. . .

Della groaned as she woke and gasped as her helmet was cracked and the suit was spilling oxygen! She held her throat and dug through her suit, pulling out a case of gum with Gyro Gearloose’s face on it. She resisted rolling her eyes and grabbed two sticks and started to chew them quickly, sighing as she could breathe again. 

“Ugh, black licorice?!” She made a promise to punch Gyro when she got back to earth. Wait… back to earth? She looked around to see gray rock and above her was Earth. “N-no…” She began to panic as she looked around and saw her egg a few feet away! The egg was able to hold air but only for a limited time! She had to get it back in the chamber or… no! She wouldn’t even consider that! She groaned as she tried to crawl towards it but found her leg stuck under large debris. 

“No, let me go!!” She pulled and pushed as hard as she could but nothing budged. She looked at her egg and then back at her trapped leg, an idea formed in the back of her mind. “Damn… now I wish I never tricked Donald into seeing that movie…” 

. . .

Della held back tears as she was biting her scarf while wrapping up the stump that was once her leg. She had managed to save her egg, getting it back in the chamber, and filling it with oxygen. Thankfully she had thought to bring enough baby food and diapers to last three kids, seeing that she had only one then they should last until he was old enough to chew the gum or hopefully until Scrooge could find them. 

A few days passed with Della focusing on building a robotic leg as a replacement, finding her guidebook and a user’s manual to the ship, and a camera. Around a month passed on the moon and she noticed her egg was shaking more and more almost ready to hatch. She thought of recording a video as a diary of sorts and to record the moment her son came into the world. After recording a video explaining how she was doing and showing off her leg she was interrupted by the egg. She grabbed the camera running over and recorded it, shaking as her excitement grew. 

Finally, a tiny hand came out of the egg and the rest cracked away. The baby cooed looking up at Della who touched the glass of the chamber and smiled. 

“Hello Jet… welcome to the moon.”


	2. The Moon Mother

Responsibility. Della never liked the word, maybe since her uncle always used it, or maybe the fact that her brother criticized her with it so often, but the true root of her hatred for it may come from the fact that even she knew they were often right. She was never the type to accept full responsibility, true when they were on adventures she would sometimes get them captured or activate a trap, not as often as Donald but still, Della would always escape responsibility by getting them out of any trouble. She always reasoned that there was no harm no foul so why waste valuable time in this life regretting or feeling guilty?

This time though, that guilt and regret would never leave her. From every time she chewed that awful gum, every time she went out of her ship and looked up at her home so close but still seemingly a lifetime away, and especially every time she looked into her son’s eyes. A living reminder of how she’s failed as a sister, niece, and mother. 

Even after Jet hatched a few months ago, she would focus a lot of time trying to gather the scattered parts of her ship just in case they would be needed later. If the worst came to pass she may have to try to rebuild the ship all on her own. Well, it's not like she never had to fix an aircraft before! She did let Uncle Scrooge fly the Cloudslayer… once.

Jet was a handful, so much that she felt worse for leaving her family to take care of two of her kids. Donald and Scrooge were unprepared for parenthood but hey at least they had Grandpa Fergus and Granny Downy there to help, if Scrooge’s ego would allow him to ask for their help.

Della would feed him, change him, and sometimes when the stress of the situation would hit she would just gaze into his young carefree eyes. They looked so eager to see beyond the glass pod and better, always seemed to sparkle when they caught sight of her, igniting a new fire in her. With his birth, however, her time had to be much more split. At times, she would lose track of how long she had been out only to return and hear crying. 

The first time this happened, Della stayed next to the glass chamber watching Jet for two days straight, fearful of allowing her head to get lost again in her rush to get them home. Knowing that Scrooge would send ships after her, she decided to trust him and be there for Jet. Only wasting time to repair her distress signal, convert the ship remains into a makeshift shelter, and hoping her videos would reach earth or passing by ships. She also made some amateur changes to the chamber, making arm holes and rubber arms out of some of the ship's inners. 

To be able to reach out and touch her son was something Della cherished and hoped to be able to do soon without the help of the gloves. She brought over the camera and decided to do another diary, this time with Jet. 

“Heya umm again everyone! I think you all missed my last few videos but that’s totally cool! I bet you all are super busy. I mean Earth is a pretty busy place. Not the moon as it turns out, seems like me and little Jet here are the only ones on this whole rock! Sadly Scrooge if you are listening, there is no treasure on the moon so there is no need to come well other than to save us! Jet here is growing slowly but surely, quite a pair of lungs on this one. I think he gets that from you Donald! I hope Turbo and Rebel are doing well… I want to see them so much… It’s okay though! I’m just letting you all give them some love before I smother all of them with more love than they can take!” Della smiled and brought the camera closer to see Jet. 

“Here’s your brother boys… I bet he misses you a lot already. Donald, I know you wanted to be there for when all the boys hatched but at least I got that on camera! I can’t wait to come home and take you three on so many different kinds of adventures! Once I get back… I-I… I promise that I will never-” Della was interrupted as she was sent crashing to the ground. The whole ship shook violently and Jet began to cry. Della jumped to her feet and touched the chamber. “Shh shh, I got you Jet! Mom is here.” He slowly calmed but was still crying. “Since when did the moon quake?” The ship shook again and Della jumped as a long hairy bug-like arm tore into the ship and was destroying everything. 

She glanced at Jet and frowned before running at the arm, sliding under it and kicking it before grabbing some of the books it knocked off the shelves and smacking it with them.

“How’s this for hard-hitting knowledge?! Ooh boy I need to write up some quips.” The arm retracted and a large red eye looked into the craft, spitting some green liquid at Della and melting the books. “Phooey…” She glared at the monster and rushed at it, undoing her leg and smacking it in the eye. The beast roared back and managed to grab her and take her from the ship before throwing her behind it. Della groaned and gasped as the monster was huge, it stood on four legs, and was almost egg-shaped with tentacles on its mouth and small ones on top of its head. Four large red eyes glared at the mother. 

“Let’s go ugly! You want some of Della Duck?!” The monster glared before spitting on some of the debris that Della had gathered. “H-hey!! Stop that!” It gathered the metal and dug deep into the moon. “No! No, dang it!” She ran to where it vanished only to find the hole had refilled. 

She angrily kicked the ground before shaking her head and running back to Jet. Thankfully, he was safe and was only annoyed at having been rocked around so violently. She carried the boy as best she could and sighed as she wished she could sing to him, that she could feel him, that they weren’t on a distant world. She blinked realizing she had started to cry. Shaking away the tears she set back up her camera and informed the kids what to do if you have to fight a giant bug monster on the moon, a playful grin on her face before it turned to a slightly melancholy one. “I promise Jet, Turbo, Rebel, I will not stop until I get us home. Selene help any monster that tries to stop me!”

Two Years Later . . .

Jet gulped as he looked down at the small purple stick in his hands. The lady on the other side of the glass had shown him how to chew the strange stick. He trusted the lady, the stranger had always taken care of him before. He stuck it in his mouth and nearly spat out the gum at the taste but the lady seemingly was desperate for him to chew it. He sighed and closed his eyes as he chewed it and gasped as the glass walls that protected him began to rise. 

He made a small noise as he grabbed at the walls and fell from the chamber, right into the lady’s arms. She held him tightly as he fought against her desperate to get back into the chamber. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay Jet!” What strange noises… it sounded a bit like the mumbling that he’d hear sometimes from behind the glass. Jet fought harder, making animalistic sounds and even biting the arms holding him. Fear and anger caused him to fight until suddenly a soft voice broke through the rage.

Some part of him deep down knew that melody that the lady was humming. It felt… warm and safe… He slowly stopped his struggling and listened as he felt water falling onto his head. 

“Look to the stars my darling baby boys...

Life is strange and vast

Filled with wonders and joys...

Face each new sun with eyes clear and true

Unafraid of the unknown

Because I’ll face it all with you…”

Jet felt his own eyes tearing up as he was held against the lady’s chest. He relaxed and leaned against her. Seeing her hand, he touched it with a moment’s hesitation. It was like his own but bigger and rough but still warm and strong. He rubbed their hands together before turning so he could see the lady, for the first time with no glass between them.

Her long hair, strange clothing, and those eyes. The ones that had always given him peace. He touched her face and smiled before she smiled back and tearfully held him.

“Oh Jet… I’ve wanted to hold you for so long… I’m your mom.” Jet tilted his head at the word. Never knowing what they meant. 

“Mmm… mma… mmo… Mom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to thank everyone for all the support! The comments that I've gotten are so awesome and have helped me decide the direction of this story! Any suggestions or questions are always welcomed! Also thank you all for the kudos and giving my story the time of day.


	3. The First Lesson

Della snored as she kicked in her sleep, dreams of past adventures whirled through her mind. Her brother and uncle fighting Vikings, exploring ancient tombs, and ghost pirates. She smiled when she felt something touch her face. She opened her eyes to see some looking back at her and for a moment, she lost herself in the past.  
“Don…?”   
“Mommy, the Moonmite is back.” Her son turned and pointed at the large hole in their ship, he was wearing scraps of her red spacesuit for clothes and held her guidebook in his tiny hands.  
“Jet… wait what?!” Della jumped to her feet and rushed to a window to see the Moonmite digging through some of the ship’s wreckage that Della had separated. She angrily put on her goggles and ignored a strange clank in her prosthetic leg as she ran out there. “Why that big palooka!”  
“Mom your leg-”  
“Not now Don, you stay here while I’ll deal with this.”  
“But mom!” Della ignored her son as she jumped down and kicked the back of the Moon Mite. It turned and roared at her, leading to Della shouting back and trying to forcibly get it to leave.   
“Get out of here! Those are my parts of my horribly mangled ship!” She grabbed at one of the metal poles that the mite was eating and tried to pull it back only to be tossed around by the creature. She gritted her teeth and dragged her robotic foot against the ground before she rushed at the beast and pulled her scarf off. She tied it to make a makeshift lasso and caught one of the pieces of metal that the mite was taking. She jumped and used the leverage to swing around and kick the mite in the face.   
“Yeah, how you like- oh Phooey!” Della’s eyes widened as she saw her leg had come off and she fell hard, rolling against the ground. She groaned and tried to get up but gasped seeing the mite reaching for her leg. “H-hey that’s mine!” She crawled for it and grabbed on as the mite bit it. “You’re not taking it!”  
“S-stop! Umm p-please!” Della and the Mite stopped and looked down at Jet who was cowering in front of them. He was tightly holding the guidebook against his chest and sniffed while he glared at the Mite. “L-leave my mommy alone!” The mite blinked and spat out the leg with Della before walking away and digging into the ground.   
“Yeah… you better run…” Della groaned as she looked at her leg, grimacing as some bits of it were dissolved by the mite’s acid and would take more parts to fix. Jet ran over to his mom and cried.   
“I-I saw you scratching and pulling at your leg in your sleep mommy! I t-tried to tell y-you!” Della grimaced as she remembered how she disregarded her son’s warning and ran off. She could almost hear her uncle lecturing her on her hardheadedness and her brother’s angry quacking.   
“Shh shh baby I’m here I got you. Want a hug?” Jet nodded and ran into his mother’s arms. She held him tightly as he gripped her coat and nuzzled her. She rubbed and preened the feathers on his head and sighed. She was being reckless again, something she couldn’t be when she is meant to be taking care of her son. “Are you okay Jet?” He sniffed and pulled back with a nod.  
“Yes, I was on the ship. I-I just came out when I saw your leg break…” He looked down at the leg and Della smiled gently, cupping his cheeks and made him look at her.   
“It’s okay, I should have listened to you, sweetie. Come on, help me back to the ship.” She leaned against the three-year-old as they waddled back to the ship, stopping to grab her scarf. They settled back in the ship and Della stretched as she laid on the cold steel and Jet laid beside her. He opened her guidebook and looked for any exciting or colorful pictures that would catch a child’s eye.   
Della smiled, knowing she would have to answer plenty of questions he would naturally have about animals, flowers, or monsters that were in the guidebook.  
“Mommy? Who is Don?” Della froze and blinked looking at her boy’s curious eyes as he looked at her.”  
“W-what?”  
“You said I was Don. I thought I was Jet?” She smiled, a disheartened chuckle escaping her lips as her eyes teared up. Jet quickly hugged her in an attempt to keep her from crying even as his own eyes started to cry. “D-don’t cry, mommy! I’m sorry!”  
She hugged him back and sighed as she looked around the ship, a moment of clarity hitting her. She hadn’t noticed the number of changes she had and hadn’t made to her makeshift home. There were no beds or any real place to sleep comfortably. No toys or anything else a child could use to entertain themselves. If it had been her trapped there as a kid, she would have gone mad but not Jet. He never complained or whined without a reason, only ever asking her questions on things he finds in her guidebook.   
A seemingly endless amount of tic tac toe papers were scattered around, her chalkboard nearby filled completely with marks that screamed the amount of time she allowed herself to be trapped there. No, not just her. Her eyes zeroed in on a picture nearby on the floor, a childish drawing which showed a caricature of herself in a large heart.  
This was wrong and it had been her fault. A mother was meant to be a giver, a protector, and a provider. She had failed at all of those. One of her sons was trapped far from their home, in a dangerous situation that couldn’t be salvaged or escaped from. He was being forced to live half a life with a single book as the only thing he’ll have to know of the Earth. She had been content to tell him stories, tales of her own adventures and of the many places she saw while waiting for her uncle and brother to save them. Signs didn't work and it seems her video messages weren't either. She would need a more active plan.  
She wouldn’t wait any longer, she would fix the Spear of Selene herself! She had to, for his sake and for her other kids. She asked Jet to go to the cockpit of the ship and grab the picture there. He asked her what a cockpit was and she explained slowly. He left and came bouncing back with a picture of his mother with Scrooge and Donald at her side as three eggs laid in front of them. She pulled her son onto her lap and started to explain who her uncle and brother were, telling him how rich Scrooge was and how he could swim through gold and recounting the famous stories of Donald Duck.   
. . .  
She laid Jet down as he slept with a large smile and holding the picture close to his chest. He had lost himself in her words, wanting to meet and be like the rest of his family but knowing he had brothers out there was something else for him. She had told him that siblings had a bond unlike anything else. They would be your greatest friends and would do anything for each other. He couldn’t wait to meet them and dreamt of what they would be like.  
Della kissed his forehead and rubbed a hand through his long hair before she walked to the cockpit and after a bit of searching found the owner’s manual. She grabbed her camera and turned it on as she told it her plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a big dump of writings. The last few months have been pretty hard and there were some losses in 2020 but after a bit of healing, I'm back. My writing may not be a hundred percent yet so I apologize for that but if I don't write then my writer's block will never disappear. Thank you everyone for all your support!


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